English indie rockers Hard-Fi recently completed a 13-day nationwide tour, gracing stages at the Junction in Cambridge, O2 Academy in Liverpool, Rock City in Nottingham, and the iconic Troxy in London. FOH engineer Sam Parker and monitor engineer Bertie Hunter manned DiGiCo Quantum 225 and SD12 digital mixing consoles, supplied by CS Audio, to mark the end of the band’s ten-year absence from the live circuit.
Parker was recruited by Hard-Fi’s management before the release of their debut album, Stars of CCTV , in 2005. ‘I remember receiving a demo CD of songs, and then I was formally introduced to the band,’ he says. ‘During those early days, the touring set-up was limited to myself handling FOH and a tour manager/driver. Within the first year, the band upgraded to a tour bus and an expanded crew, which included Paul [Hatt, CS Audio] managing monitors, Jason [Hyde] as LD, and additional backline support.’
Having known Hatt for more than 20 years during their time working with Hard-Fi and Groove Armada, Parker highlights that when Hatt moved from his role as a monitoring engineer to assuming control of his family’s PA and rental company business, CS Audio, they continued to actively seek opportunities to collaborate.
‘My father was an incredibly talented sound engineer who worked with some of the world’s most renowned musical stars, including Tina Turner, Cliff Richard and The Shadows,’ Hatt says. ‘He retired while I was still freelancing for Hard-Fi and other bands and artists. I made the decision to take over the company at a moment when digital consoles were gaining momentum and stepping up a gear in their functionality. I began renting consoles to the bands I worked with, integrating them into their set-ups by taking them on the trailer alongside the backline. From that point, the business has organically expanded.’
Initially purchasing a DiGiCo SD8, Hatt expanded his inventory with an SD12 when it was released: ‘The SD12 was a game-changer,’ he says. ‘It swiftly established itself as the go-to console in its class, outshining competitors with its enhanced capabilities, especially as DiGiCo had introduced a second screen to such a compact desk. It seamlessly integrated into trailer tours and support tours, and quickly became an industry standard.’
The success of the first console led to a second, then a third SD12. This progression culminated in the addition of Quantum consoles, with Hatt adding a Quantum 338 and Quantum 225 to the company’s inventory, which he purchased through Core Pro. He hasn’t looked back since and has just acquired a ‘shiny new SD Rack’, which has already gone out on tour with another UK singer the company works with.
As Hatt took a step back from mixing to concentrate fully on his company’s business, Parker enlisted monitor engeer, Hunter. The Hard-Fi tour marked Hunter’s first time working with both the band and CS Audio.
‘It’s been an absolute pleasure!’ he says. ‘The CS Audio package was of the highest standard. The SD12 is a fantastic console and a perfect choice power and size-wise for this type of academy tour where things sometimes have to squeeze into smaller spaces. Paul’s support has also been first-class.
‘We had around 30 inputs and output-wise there were four band mixes and two tech mixes. One of my favourite functions on the SD12 is the Processing Matrix, which is instrumental for building an efficient talk system between the band and crew.
Parker echoes Hunter’s comments, noting that the Quantum 225 and SD12 were well suited for the Hard-Fi tour. ‘We gravitated towards DiGiCo due to our longstanding familiarity with the brand,’ he says. ‘The Quantum 225 and SD12 were ideal for us, particularly because of the need for smaller footprint consoles.’ The two consoles were connected via Madi to independent MQ Racks, ensuring complete autonomy within a condensed set-up.
Additionally, Parker found the All-Pass filters within the Mustard EQ section useful. ‘The DiGiCo consoles proved invaluable in seamlessly blending guitar mics and Radial JDX sources, as well as harmonising the drum close mics with Austrian Audio OC818 overheads,’ he adds. ‘The All-Pass filters were brilliant at tackling these tasks.’
CS Audio has been incredibly busy post-Covid, ‘It’s been pretty non-stop, especially here in the UK where we’ve been busier than ever before,’ says Hatt. ‘There definitely hasn’t been a lack of shows. Quite the opposite, and our DiGiCo consoles have been working incredibly hard.
‘One of the big differences with DiGiCo is that there’s always someone at the end of the phone, and they’re totally geared towards you as a live sound operator,’ he concludes. ‘They understand the immediacy of something going wrong in the field needing to be resolved. And there’s always a solution. It’s reassuring to know that the company understands what you are trying to do. I think that’s the key difference and the reason why they’ve gained such popularity in the industry.’
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